


Apples

by omegaxibir



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 03:51:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omegaxibir/pseuds/omegaxibir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki returns from his imprisonment on Asgard. Victor, like anyone else who is still a human, has aged.<br/>So Loki brings him a gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apples

It has been years. Decades. Loki has been rotting away in a cell on Asgard for far too long. But he shows up again, finally, on Doom's Latverian doorstep.  
Doom refuses to take off his mask around Loki, and he knows it is because Victor has aged. Victor asks a slew of questions - still a scientist to the core, Loki thinks - and Loki does not answer them.  
"You have grown old, Victor." He says amidst Victor's initial rant, and it stops him in his tracks, makes him glare at the trickster from behind his steel mask. Has he really returned after all these years to mock him?  
"Of course I have."  
"I take it you never found the key to immortality."  
"Clearly not." Loki is not dense, he is saying this to taunt Victor. Doom tires of it quickly.  
"Do you like apples, Victor?"  
It is a ridiculous question, and Doom thinks twice about ever having missed Loki's tendency to spontaneously change the subject.  
"What?" Doom asks, and he sighs irritably because this was not the reunion he had envisioned.  
"I did not stutter. Perhaps your hearing is failing you in your old age?"  
Victor, as loathe as he is to admit it, has missed Loki's smart mouth.  
"Or perhaps the time spent in your cell has made you mad."  
"I have always been mad." Loki says, and his grin splits his face and Doom knows he has not aged, but his smile shows wrinkles that were not there before.  
He has suffered.  
Years ago, it would have caused Doom's heart to stir (just the slightest bit, of course.) But he buried his sentiments for the trickster god years ago.  
  
"Have you an actual point, Loki, or are you wasting words, as you were always wont to do?"  
"The secret that has ever managed to evade the _great_ Victor von Doom. I've brought you a present."  
Doom sets his jaw. He has buried whatever sentiments he'd held, but Loki is good at digging.  
Loki is also good at playing games.  
"We are far past the point of trinkets." Doom does not have all the time in the world. Not anymore.  
Loki rolls his eyes, but that grin of his is back. His hair is long and unruly, cascading over his shoulders in waves. Victor wonders when was the last time it saw a brush.  
"If you are not appreciative, I will take my blessings elsewhere."  
It is a lie. Loki does not have anyone else to give to.  
Doom is proud of himself for still being able to call Loki's bluff. He crosses steel arms over steel chest.  
Loki waves a hand - fingers still long and nimble, gestures still graceful, though his nails were no longer lacquered and evenly manicured - he has been biting them, it is evident. A soft glow of golden light and he is holding an apple, appearing as though it were painted gold.  
Ah, yes. Doom recalls a myth about such things. Either Loki is playing a remarkably cruel joke, or it is another legend which is not really a legend after all.  
"Stolen from Idunn's grove. I have entire bushels at my disposal. Each bite will restore your youth... _long_ since lost."  
That last bit is intended to sting.  
Doom does not let it.  
  
"If you came back after all these years only to craft one of your pranks-"  
Loki cuts him off with a dismissive wave of his hand. Doom hates being cut off, most of the time ignores it, and he opens his mouth to continue but Loki speaks first, and Victor refuses to raise his voice like a child.  
"As I said, if you do not want it, I will take it elsewhere. I will indulge myself instead." And he takes a bite, closing his eyes and savoring it, breathing slow. There is juice trickling down from the corner of his mouth, down his chin, and Doom wants to grab his jaw with iron fingers and lick it off.  
He has not felt a spark of desire in a very long time. He buried that as well. But Loki is good at digging.  
And good at making a show of things. Including eating.  
For all his theatrics, however, he had been sincere - his skin takes on a soft glow as he eats. He finishes the apple and with another flourish of his hand, sends the core back to wherever it had come from, and he gives Doom a grin so devilish there is no need for him to say 'I told you so.'  
"And you will just give them to me?" Doom asks, because he knows there is always a catch. "Why?"  
Loki may have bought himself more youth, but he does not look any less haunted.  
Loki had always been full of ghosts, hidden behind a sharp white smile.  
And he was smiling now, as he took another step towards Doom. "That is the nature of gifts, is it not? And this is indeed a gift. For an _old_....associate."  
They both know that the two of them had been more than associates, even if they had never put a proper title on what they had. It makes Doom angry to hear him limit it to 'associates,' if only because it draws things up from the depths of him that he thought had been long laid to rest.  
Oh, but Loki is so, so _terribly_ good at digging.  
  
But before Doom can say anything, Loki taps the side of his mask. "Ah, but first...give us a kiss, Victor. It has been so very long."  
So here is the catch, and Loki was as much of a liar as ever when he said there wasn't one. Loki is sneering and Victor wants to wrap his hands around his pretty white throat.  
Loki knows damn well that Victor does not want to remove his mask, especially not now, when Loki is youthful and beautiful as ever and Victor has only gotten older.  
But Doom is wise, and knows a few moments of shame do not hold a candle to eternal youth - to _immortality._ He lifts the faceplate and Loki's grin widens. "Oh...you _have_ gotten old." He teases, and Victor growls, grabs him by the shoulders, crashes their lips together.  
  
Loki is as alive and warm as the day he left, his mouth sweet with the taste of apples.


End file.
